Difference between revisions of "Guesting System"

Revision as of 09:37, 21 March 2015

By Kitan Tataru

This page explains TarValon.Net's established process for an Accepted or Soldier to choose an Ajah or Company, also called a Community Group. This is known as the Guesting System.

This page also explains the process an Aes Sedai or Gaidin must follow to change which Community Group he or she is part of, which is called Demotion.

The Membership Manual contains more informationa bout this topic.

History

In the Wheel of Time series, no one is a member of an Ajah until they are raised to Aes Sedai. At that point, they choose the Ajah they wish to join (New Spring: Chapter 11). These people have had many years, through the process of being a novice and Accepted, to discover what the different Ajahs are about and where their personality fits.

From TarValon.Net's founding until January 2006, Accepted/Soldiers could only access one Ajah/Company (Community Group) at a time and they rarely changed groups. However, we found this led to people assuming that once an Accepted/Soldier chose a Community Group, they were a full member of it. After "joining" a Community Group, Accepted/Soldiers were allowed to take full part in discussions about topics that only affected that group's members.

More significantly, there was an expectation that Accepted/Soldiers were locked into their choice of Community Group once they made it, and changing groups was considered extremely bad form. This was not what TarValon.Net's Administration wanted or intended to happen, so the Guesting System was implemented to change the culture of inflexibility regarding finding one's home within our community.

When the Guesting System was first introduced, the community's members were concerned. Some people thought that Accepted and Soldiers would be constantly cycling in and out of the Community Groups' sitting rooms as if there were a revolving door. Others thought that anything shared in a Community Group's sitting room would soon become public knowledge.

Ultimately, privacy concerns and other fears did not come true, and the system became one of the best changes TarValon.Net has ever made. Accepted and Soldiers are no longer afraid to change Community Groups; they feel free to find the place where they truly belong.

The Tower community as a whole has been brought closer together - people who would not have known about each other because they were in different Community Groups found themselves with new friends, even if they Aspired elsewhere. People aren’t cloistered in their Community Group with only a few friends outside of it. Our members also have a better understanding of how the different Community Groups work, lending to more cohesion amongst the Tower as a whole, particularly among our Senior Members (Aes Sedai and Gaidin).

Guesting

This is how the Guesting System works.

How to Guest

For the first 6 weeks someone is an Accepted or Soldier, they must guest with two Community Groups at a time, regardless of whether each group is an Ajah or Company. At any time, the Accepted/Soldier may change which groups they are guesting with, so long as they are in two groups at a time (not one, not three, just two).

An Accepted/Soldier may spend as much or as little time as they wish within a given group. Some people will guest with a Community Group and immediately know that it is not their home. Others may spend 8 weeks in a Community Group before deciding that it not where they belong. Some people may guest with every single Community Group to make sure that they are not overlooking a group that might fit them the best.

Some people do two or more "rounds" of guesting - they will guest with every Community Group during the first "round", then revisit the few Community Groups they think might end up being their home. Other people may know exactly which Community Group they will Aspire to as soon as they are able and will not participate much at all within the second group they are guesting in. Still others may leave the Community Group they think they belong in to see how much they miss being there. All of these guesting methods and more are perfectly acceptable ways of finding one's own home within our Community Groups.

Should an Accepted/Soldier wish to change one of the Community Groups they are guesting with, they should email the Head of Ajah/Company Commander of the group they want to leave and ask to be removed. Many Accepted/Soldiers have made a point to post in the Community Group's sitting room prior to leaving to say goodbye and thank you. This is usually greatly appreciated by the members of the Community Group.

When requesting to leave a Community Group, an Accepted/Soldier must also request to guest elsewhere unless they have Aspired. The Tower Gatekeepers cannot move an Accepted or Soldier from one group to another until they have received both requests. An Accepted/Soldier should let the Master/Mistress of Accepted and Soldiers know if they have any difficulty moving between groups.

If it has been a week after an Accepted/Soldier has alerted the Head of Ajah or Company Commander that they wish to leave a group and they have not been removed, they should email the Director of Membership. An Accepted/Soldier should only be able to see into two groups at any given time.

Etiquette while guesting

The message in this part is important enough that it deserves its own section.

An Accepted/Soldier truly is a guest while they are in the various Community Group forums. Remember that this is where many of our Senior Members consider their homes to be. That means that personal information is often posted in these forums.

Under no circumstances should an Accepted/Soldier discuss any information they read in Community Group forums with anyone not in that forum.

They should not allude to that information by any means, manner, or form.

They should not repeat it.

They should not copy/paste it anywhere.

They should not paraphrase it.

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

If anyone is found to break this ethical code, the punishment will be severe. An Accepted/Soldier should not join a Community Group just so they can gawk at the skeletons in the closet.

Aspiring to a Community Group

Once a member has been an Accepted/Soldier for at least 6 weeks, they are eligible to Aspire to a Community Group. This means that the Accepted/Soldier is declaring that this is the group they intend to join once they are raised to Aes Sedai or Gaidin. This is a necessary part of being an Accepted/Soldier--they cannot become a Senior Member until they Aspire. When an Accepted/Soldier has Aspired to an Community Group, they are called an Aspirant.

An Accepted/Soldier does not have to Aspire to a group right at the 6 week minimum time period; some people take several more weeks or even months before deciding to Aspire to a particular group.

Each Community Group has a different process for Aspiring. An Accepted/Soldier will learn about that procedure either by looking through the stickies in that Community Group's forum or by contacting the group's Head of Ajah/Company Commander.

Once an Accepted/Soldier has officially Aspired, they should alert the Head of Ajah/Company Commander of the other group they were guesting with to have themselves removed from that group's forum. This means that until the Accepted/Soldier becomes a Senior Member, they will only see one Ajah/Company forum.

Aspiring to an Community Group does not mean that an Accepted/Soldier is a member or even a half-member of that group. They are still free to explore other Community Groups if the desire strikes them; they just need to un-Aspire by alerting the Head of Ajah/Company Commander of their Community Group.

Accepted and Soldiers: Please do not let reluctance of offending the members of the Community Group to which you're currently Aspired prevent you from finding your true home. Senior Members realize that sometimes it takes time to find the right group, and they respect that.

Choosing to Demote

Sometimes, for whatever reason, an Aes Sedai or Gaidin feels they do not fit into their Community Group anymore. If the Aes Sedai or Gaidin is not able to resolve this problem, they may choose to voluntarily demote to Accepted or Soldier to find a new Ajah or Company.

All demotions are voluntary. No community members are demoted as a disciplinary measure.

The process of voluntary demotion is a difficult one, and is set up as such on purpose. The prospect of leaving one's Community Group is not to be taken lightly, nor should it be taken for granted. The TarValon.Net Administration and Department of Membership take a Senior Member's changing of Community Group very seriously, and it should only be done as a last resort.

It is important to understand that voluntary demotion is not a procedure that is easily approved. Petitions for voluntary demotion will be examined by Administration and either approved or denied. Senior Members who are given approval to leave their Community Group must meet certain criteria.

If the only reason for leaving a Community Group is a matter of people involved rather than the concept of the Community Group itself, the Senior Member's petition for demotion is not likely to be approved. The Senior Member must present his or her petition so that it is clear that this member should not be affiliated with his or her present Community Group. Appropriate reasons include no longer fitting the profile of the present Ajah/Company or visibly fitting the profile of another Ajah/Company more ideally than the current one.

Petitioning for Demotion

A Senior Member who wants to change Community Group affiliation will petition the Director of Membership, giving valid reasons for the demotion. The Director of Membership must receive the petition before the deadline posted in Site Announcements (usually sometime in June and December).

If approved, the Senior Member will be required to demote her/himself to Accepted or Soldier and participate in the guesting system. He or she will guest in two Community Groups at a time, like any other Accepted/Soldier, but will not be able to Aspire to his or her newly-chosen Community Group until after after 12 weeks of guesting (rather than 6 weeks, like usual Accepted/Soldiers).

Community members who voluntarily demote are not eligible for re-raising to Senior Member until 6 months after they have demoted, and many members find that it takes them longer than that to be raised again to Senior Member.

The Demotion Experience

The voluntarily demoted community member will be an Accepted or Soldier in truth, rather than any special in-between rank. Although he or she will be given the courtesy of not being required to complete further raising project or contribution to the Tower, in all other ways he or she is to be treated in the same manner as any other Accepted or Soldier. He or she will be raised eventually through the Hall and will be subject to all the strictures inherent of the Accepted/Soldier rank.

At the same time, it is important to know that guesting after demoting will not be the same experience as it is for Accepted/Soldiers who are guesting for the first time. Demotees have a history with many other Senior Members, and this history doesn't just disappear. Voluntary demotion should not be perceived as a clean slate, do-over option. It is, rather, a shifting from one situation to another.

The voluntarily demoted Accepted/Soldier must appreciate that other Senior Members might have a hard time getting used to the demotee having a different rank. Senior Members, especially those belinging to the Community Group where the Accepted/Soldier chooses to Aspire, might be cautious. This caution might come from something as simple as wanting to know for sure that the Accepted/Soldier will not change his or her mind again before the Senior Members fully warm to the concept of him or her as a member of their Community Group.

At the same time, it should be respected that the Accepted/Soldier chooses the Community Group, not the other way around. Raising an Accepted/Soldier is not up to a vote with the new Community Group. Of course, members of this group will have input which may be put into the raising packet gathered by the Head of Ajah or Company Commander and shown to the Hall, but ultimately the member’s raising is up to the vote of the Hall, like any other raising.

The voluntarily demoted Accepted/Soldier is encouraged to take his or her time in deciding which Community Group to Aspire to. Likewise, someone who has demoted should not feel that other people are rushing them through the process. If an Accepted/Soldier finds that he or she is being pressured to choose (or not choose) a particular Community Group and that he or she is not being allowed to fully enjoy the guesting process, please contact the Master/Mistress of Accepted and Soldiers.

Second Demotions

Second voluntary demotions were not always permitted at TarValon.Net. However, after the Guesting System and Demotion were established for a while, Administration found it necessary examine all of the potential ramifications of allowing people to demote a second time, while considering that we want people to be happy both with TarValon.Net as a whole as well as within their chosen Community Group.

To that end, at the Spring 2014 Admin Meeting Administration decided to allow second voluntary demotions. However, they will be far more restrictive than a first demotion is.

Here are the requirements for second demotions:

1. The Senior Member must have been a Senior Member for a minimum of 3 years in their current Community Group.
2. The member must be active and participating in the overall TarValon.Net community (though not necessarily in their current Community Group).
   1. Thus, a second demotion wouldn't be approved for someone had been on a long term Leave of Absence, then came back with the demotion request being one of the first things they do. Since TarValon.Net things can seem very different after a Leave of Absence, we want members to have time to get to know the people and the Community as a whole again before making a huge change. If a Senior Member still wants to demote after showing that they have been present and active on the site (without which he or she most likely wouldn't be raised again in any case), then he or she is more than welcome to submit an application to the Director of Membership in the way described above.
3. Members who demote a second time are able to Aspire after 6 months.
4. Members who demote a second time are eligible for raising to Senior Member after 1 year.

If you have any questions about the Guesting System or Demoting, feel free to email the Director of Membership.